One of the most exciting pieces of news to emerge from Cannes this week was the announcement of Jodorowsky’s Dune, a documentary about the failed attempt by ambitious and very possibly insane Chilean filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky to film Frank Herbert‘s novel Dune in the mid-’70s. The project has long stood as one of the great ‘films that never were.’ Just the idea of seeing the surviving participants talk about what the film might have been is exciting, and that’s what the doc offers — hopefully we’ll also see art and designs that have not previously been released.

So here’s the first promo video for the film, in which Alejandro Jodorowsky explains just how ambitious his plan for the movie really was.

So he wanted to make a movie that replicated the effect of drug use? A lot of people have said and/or tried that, but Jodorowsky is one of the very few who seems likely to make it work. After news of this film came up I rewatched Santa Sangre, and realized I had almost forgotten just how wild that movie can be — and that’s one of his most controlled efforts! Watch the trailer for The Holy Mountain (not even vaguely safe for work) and then reassess whether the ambition mentioned in this video clip is lunacy, bravado, or something legit.